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The world blurred in flashes of rock and moss until Ojiro could no longer keep his eyes open as he bounced off the cliffside. He yelled as a sharp pain shot through his arm, but he had little time to comprehend anything as he finally slammed into the ground at the bottom of what looked like a ravine and the whole world went dark.
He didn’t know how long he was unconscious when he finally fluttered his eyelids open. As his brain began to focus, so did his sense of smell as he grimaced from the fumes surrounding him. He tried lifting himself up to look around, but his muscles screamed at him in response. With just enough strength to roll onto his back, he managed to take several shuddering breaths as he gazed around the area he had landed in.
A haze drifted over the columns of rock that looked like decaying flesh. The ground was littered with fragments of bones, too crushed to know what monster it had come from when it was alive. Hardly any sky was visible from where he was, but he knew above the vast cliffs was the Coral Highlands where he had been walking with his partner, Kita Shinsuke, before something swooped down and knocked him off. That meant that the hellish environment he found himself in was the Rotten Vale, and with a quick look around he saw that he was entirely alone.
Fear gripped him, not for his own predicament but the fact that Kita was somewhere high above him and left alone. It wasn’t that Kita wasn’t capable on his own, but since teaming up when they came in on the ship, Ojiro had felt an overwhelming desire to protect him. Perhaps it was his quiet demeanor, or maybe his unwavering loyalty, or his dark eyes that drew him in like an endless chasm.
A distant howl cut through the air, echoing down through the caverns of the Rotten Vale. Ojiro groaned and forced himself to his feet to do a quick check of his body. Despite falling down the cliff and hitting every rock on the way down, nothing seemed to be broken. He was bleeding in several places, and he suddenly wished he had taken Kita’s advice and packed some bandages in his sack. If he had packed everything Kita recommended, however, his bag would weigh more than he did.
Ojiro sighed, feeling a slight pain of loneliness at not having his partner by his side. He shook it off and ripped a long piece of his shirt to tie it over his arm to stop the worst of the bleeding as best he could. Luckily, his switch axe was still strapped to his back; if it had been in his hands when he was knocked off the cliff, who knows where it could have landed?
With an assertive nod to himself, Ojiro began to pick his way over the carcass ridden floor to find a way back up to the Coral Highlands to meet up with Kita. He entered a narrow ravine with sharp rocks sticking out from the cliffside, hoping that he might find a way to work his way higher. He shivered as a frigid breeze rushed through the enclosed space. Ojiro began feeling a bit claustrophobic, even though straight above him was wide open to the sky. He pressed forward, his eyes scouring the rock for any that would be reachable to begin his climb.
His body froze when he heard it; a rumble so low it reverberated the cliffs surrounding him, dislodging several rocks that came crashing down around him. It turned his skin to ice as he jerked his head around, looking for the source of the growl that seemed to have come from hell itself. He saw nothing, which only seemed to make his heart beat faster as he instinctively looked for a place to hide.
He had hardly taken three steps when the ground began to shake beneath his feet. His feet scraped the ground as he looked behind him just as a giant shape began rolling into the ravine from around the corner. The monster had spikes sticking out all over it that speared into the ground and rocks surrounding it. Ojiro didn’t wait to inspect it further as he spun and ran as fast as his legs would allow, and the creature let out a bellow that shook even the air around him.
He couldn’t believe how quickly it could roll, and how it seemed to know exactly where he was. His head swiveled to glance over his shoulder and back to the front just in time to see a boulder crashing down onto his path. He cut to his left to avoid it and raised his arms over his head to avoid more scattered rocks falling from above. The ground beneath his feet shook violently, and he knew without looking behind him that the monster was gaining on him.
Just when he was sure he was to be crushed, he spun around a corner and burst into a clearing filled with a fresh skeleton that had yet to be decayed with a thick mist filling the air. He didn’t stop until he was in the middle of the clearing and spun around on his feet to face the monster. His arm reached behind him and gripped the hilt of his switch axe, yanking it around his body as he drew in a deep breath to bolster his courage. He held his fear in the tension of his jaw as he saw the monster roll into the clearing and stop in front of him. It lifted its head and bellowed just before slamming its head down onto the ground, sending clumps of mud, rocks, and debris straight at Ojiro. He jerked out of the way and coughed as a cloud of dirt filled the air and hopped onto a boulder to give him a little height and even better view of the monster.
It was a Radobaan, a creature that fed off the bones of carcasses and embedded them into his skin like spikes. Ojiro hardly had time to mentally recollect anything else about it before it coiled once again and rolled straight at him. He gripped his axe and let out a shout as he jumped. The boulder that had been under his feet combusted as the monster barreled into it, and as he came down he aimed his axe blade straight into a bare spot on the top of its leg. It cut deep, and he used the momentum of the Radobaan flailing in pain to leap back onto the ground.
His feet didn’t stop as he weaved to avoid being smashed by the creature’s head. He ducked underneath the massive skeleton for protection, but a moment later they burst into fragments as the Radobaan rolled after him for another attack. Up ahead were a series of rocks up against the cliffside, and Ojiro ran straight for them. He didn’t like being caught between the monster and a wall, but at least he could gain a little height to help him face the beast.
His feet bounded up several boulders before taking one more leap onto the biggest one. His feet scraped against the rocks as he pivoted and drew his weapon in front of him, changing it from an axe to his sword in one swift movement. The beast rolled straight up to the rock and reared up, letting out another bellow that quaked the entire canyon.
Its head turned toward Ojiro and jerked forward, its teeth snapping in a blur. He hopped just out of range and struck his sword into the softer skin underneath its jaw. He yanked his sword out and swung it around without hesitation, striking close to the beast’s eye. It screamed and lunged forward, its teeth just barely missing Ojiro as he fell backward against the cliff. Sweat soaked his clothes as he frantically looked for an escape, but the Radobaan’s long body seemed to block him in from all angles.
It slammed its two front feet into the boulder and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Ojiro’s heart throbbed painfully as his damp skin turned to ice. He felt the tension in the air, telling him the creature was about to go for the kill and he felt like his chances of survival were slim. Still, he gripped his sword tight and held it back, poised to strike the creature back with everything he had.
The Radobaan let out a terrifying shriek that shook the ground and rock behind Ojiro and lunged its head forward. Before it reached him, it snapped to the side as a javelin-sized arrow jammed into the side of its head, obliterating one of its spikes. It flailed its head with a cry but had no time to regain its bearing as two more arrows struck its body.
As the monster went crazy, Ojiro looked around for the shooter and saw Kita standing about a hundred feet away, another arrow already drawn into his bow. He gave Ojiro a nod, and with a grin, Ojiro switched his weapon back into its axe form and charged it up. His feet slid further back on the rock as his axe began to glow bright, humming as it grew hot in his hand. His eyes narrowed as he waited for his moment, and as the Radobaan lifted its head to the sky Ojiro began to move.
His voice screamed out as he swept the axe back, his feet pummeling forward and kicking off the rock to give him more height. In midair, he began swinging his glowing axe for it to connect with the creature’s throat just as he reached it. The axe cut deep with the release of the element charge, right where he needed to injure it critically. At the same moment, another arrow slipped into the creature’s skull between two spikes, and the Radobaan at last fell to the ground with a gargled cry. The caverns of the Rotten Vale fell eerily silent as dust clouds filled the space, obscuring the vast ruins of skeletons and decay.
Ojiro dragged his feet through the brown cloud, groaning as he set his switch axe back in its place. As the murky air began to thin, he saw Kita’s form walk toward him with his bow already strapped to his back. As usual, Kita looked calm and steady, but Ojiro could see the intensity in his dark eyes as they scoured his body for injuries. It bloomed a familiar swirl of warmth through his chest, and in his weakened state, he couldn’t resist wrapping his arms around his partner once he was close enough to do so.
“Oh,” Kita said in a soft voice, but then Ojiro felt Kita’s hands slip across his back and tighten the hug. “I’m sorry.”
“What for? You saved my life,” Ojiro chuckled.
“It took me a while to find my way to you. I was almost too late.”
“You weren’t, and you don’t need to apologize. I’m sorry for not paying attention to my surroundings and getting knocked off the cliff in the first place.”
“Yes, you should have been paying closer attention,” Kita said, and Ojiro pulled back to glare at him. His face softened when he saw the corners of Kita’s mouth curling up.
“Are you… teasing me?”
Kita pursed his lips and looked away, pink dusting his cheeks.
“... No.”
Ojiro laughed and ruffled Kita’s hair. Then he slipped his fingers under his chin and lifted his face, so he could stare into the deep chasms of Kita’s eyes.
“It’s okay, I don’t mind,” He said softly, and grinned as Kita’s eyes widened. “Come on, let’s go. I need a break and I don’t want to take it around rotting corpses.”
Kita shook off his nervousness and nodded.
“Yes, and then I’ll clean you up properly.”
Ojiro tried to subdue his grin as he followed Kita toward an escape from the Rotten Vale. Refusing to completely give up the mood, he leaned over to his partner until his lips nearly caressed his ear.
“Good, I look forward to it.”
Kita yelped and hopped away, and Ojiro couldn’t hold back the laugh rolling up from his chest.
“Shh, there are probably more monsters down here than that one.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll be good,” He said, shooting Kita one last week and relishing the little frown he received in response. For now, Ojiro thought, wondering what other sides there were to his serious partner and began planning ways of drawing them out. In between hunting monsters that is.